A PE teacher conducted an “inappropriate” lesbian relationship with one of her
pupils, a conduct hearing has heard.

7:26PM BST 15 Jun 2011

Nicola Webster, who taught The Abbey School, Faversham, Kent, appeared at a General Teaching Council (GTC) hearing in Birmingham accused of engaging in unacceptable professional conduct between February 2008 and the spring term of 2009.

The panel heard that Miss Webster and the girl, referred to only as “Pupil A”, had embarked on a relationship during a school skiing trip in February 2008.

Miss Webster was allegedly later seen in public kissing the Year 12 pupil and walking hand-in-hand with her by another member of staff.

She is also accused of sharing her one-bedroom flat with the girl and booking a week's holiday in Palma, Majorca, for the two of them during a Valentine's Day break in 2009.

The ten allegations made against Miss Webster involve alleged evidence in the form of emails and social network communications as well as photographs which suggest that the pair were in a relationship.

Opening the two-day hearing, presenting officer Stephanie Coates, for the GTC, told the panel that an "inappropriate relationship started to form" between Miss Webster and the pupil during the ski trip in February 2008.

She said that an investigation was launched by deputy head teacher Francis Hatt after subsequent sightings of the pair were reported.

English teacher Angela Goss, who was teaching Pupil A, told the hearing that she had seen the girl and Miss Webster walking “alone, hand in hand along the seafront” in Whitstable on March 16, 2008.

In her statement, Mrs Goss said that the girl had leant in and kissed the teacher three times. She said she followed them into a pub but that neither approached her to explain what they were doing there.

She said: "As I walked in both Nicola Webster and Pupil A saw me. Pupil A immediately went off to the toilets."

Simon Pettett, for Miss Webster, suggested that the relationship between Mrs Goss and Pupil A had been strained.

He also said that Pupil A had claimed that the pair were not alone on the seafront but were in fact part of a larger group.

Pupil A had also insisted that she had been in Whitstable with her boyfriend and met the teacher by chance.

Mrs Goss said: "I can tell you categorically that I only saw Nicola Webster and Pupil A. There was nobody else with them."

She also denied claims that she and Pupil A suffered from a "personality clash".

She said: "As far as I am aware I had a perfectly normal relationship with her as a pupil and teacher.

"We spoke in class, discussed issues in class, I was not aware of anything like she's suggesting about a personality clash. As far as I'm concerned she was a top grade student."

Mr Hatt told the panel that he launched an investigation into Miss Webster's behaviour after receiving an unsigned letter from “a concerned parent and teacher” which contained details of the alleged relationship.

He said Miss Webster had denied the allegations in an interview the following day but that four of Pupil A's friends gave him information that was "clearly contrary" to the teacher's account.

They told Mr Hatt that they had seen the two together in photographs on Facebook and as a result he said he had checked their email accounts and found a number of messages sent between the pair on the school system.

In one, he found references to buying a fridge which he said backed up claims in the anonymous letter that the two were living together. He also said that the tone of the emails did not seem to suggest a simple student-teacher relationship.

“The more evidence I found tended to suggest that there had been more than just a pupil-teacher relationship between Nicola Webster and Pupil A,” he said.

The panel heard that Pupil A left the school shortly after Mrs Goss reported what she saw in Whitstable.

Miss Webster, who was a newly-qualified teacher at the time, denies the allegations. The hearing continues.